If You Don't See Me...
Jan. 25th, 2010 02:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foolish_m0rtalThere's a huge wind going through my college- it sounds like the rise and fall of a squall with all this rain and bluster.
The weather channel says 15, but it's easily 20-30 mph. My window faces the back with the woods, so I'm seeing the silhouettes of all the trees against the dark mauve-ish sky and bright boxy lights of the dorm on the other side of the woods. It's frightening- even some of the sturdiest oldest trees are swaying like little tin soldiers. The wind is sifting through whatever branches and leaves have been spared by the huge snow storm from a few weeks ago, so I can't tell if that rushing sound is the rain or the wind.
There's a tree right, and I mean RIGHT next to my room, and it's reaching up over the roof as if to pry it open. It seems a little younger than the rest, and its jerky dangerous motion and proximity is what caught my attention first and got me up out of bed and looking outside and pressing my fingers against the sagging metal netting that is twinkling with little starry beads of rain. It looks a little like a night sky when I move back and forth and watch the yellow glare from the lower street lights catch the droplets.
It has started to rain very heavily now, so the woods are a little foggier, a little dimmer. But I can see them still through the murk.
All the trees behind in the woods behind me are swaying violently back and forth in some kind of Bacchic thrall, and though it is very pretty, very solemn and ceremonial in its own way, I can't help but feel selfish and wonder whether there's going to be some twiggy devotee crushed halfway through my wall tomorrow, its bare prickly arms outstretched to anoint my eyes.
The weather channel says 15, but it's easily 20-30 mph. My window faces the back with the woods, so I'm seeing the silhouettes of all the trees against the dark mauve-ish sky and bright boxy lights of the dorm on the other side of the woods. It's frightening- even some of the sturdiest oldest trees are swaying like little tin soldiers. The wind is sifting through whatever branches and leaves have been spared by the huge snow storm from a few weeks ago, so I can't tell if that rushing sound is the rain or the wind.
There's a tree right, and I mean RIGHT next to my room, and it's reaching up over the roof as if to pry it open. It seems a little younger than the rest, and its jerky dangerous motion and proximity is what caught my attention first and got me up out of bed and looking outside and pressing my fingers against the sagging metal netting that is twinkling with little starry beads of rain. It looks a little like a night sky when I move back and forth and watch the yellow glare from the lower street lights catch the droplets.
It has started to rain very heavily now, so the woods are a little foggier, a little dimmer. But I can see them still through the murk.
All the trees behind in the woods behind me are swaying violently back and forth in some kind of Bacchic thrall, and though it is very pretty, very solemn and ceremonial in its own way, I can't help but feel selfish and wonder whether there's going to be some twiggy devotee crushed halfway through my wall tomorrow, its bare prickly arms outstretched to anoint my eyes.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-25 04:00 pm (UTC)Palm trees make a weird slapping noise, but they're infintely flexible, so seeing them sway never troubled me.
We've got at least that much breeze down here. it shouldn't bring down your deveoted tree, wood functions aside. Northern trees are usually tough enough to withstand wind, they just look less happy about it.
Palm trees are more of the leggy, dancing-priestesses variety of trees, who try to entice you into coming down into the sun with their waving arms and scanty tops. Showoffs.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-25 10:52 pm (UTC)Well, the trees didn't come down, but a lot of the branches are gone, and I don't mean the little ones. The ones that could injure you if you're caught under one.
So I suppose it's a lucky thing the wind picked up late at night and not during classes.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 12:34 am (UTC)I'm assuming they don't have lazy-looking palm trees in India of course. I could be sadly mistaken, in which case, I'd feel like a moron."Virginian student experiences death by branch!" doesn't sound like a thrilling newspaper prospect.
"Virginian geek clubbed to semi-serious maiming by racist branches" sounds slightly more interesting and rage-inspiring, btu I don't think it'll catch on.
Then again, I live in an area with hurricanes. Branches engaging in spirited pilgrimages towards human life forms don't really make me bat much of an eye, I'm afraid. If it doesn't destroy a house, I'm probably somewhat unimpressed.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 12:48 am (UTC)"Virginian geek vaguely maimed by white supremacist deciduous" sounds quite exciting, actually.
Haha, yes. My friend who sails said the same thing (she's the sonnet one with the house on the beach). Either a buiding's in rubble, or it's no deal.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 12:58 am (UTC)"Virginian geek vaguely maimed by white supremacist deciduous" sounds like something I'd read. Let's not go there. (Oh Lord, that's gotta be spread around, that quote...)
Pretty much. I'm about a mile fromt eh ocean at best, I think, but we technically have the second-highest ground int he area...not taht that means much. Everything's pretty much flat around here. You might be six feet higher above sea level than the rest of the place and you're high up. I need a sticker for my car that says, "This vehicle climbed Miami heights"... It'll go right next to "Pillage first, then BURN", and the "republicans for voldemort" sticker I so desperately want...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 01:11 am (UTC)OH MAN, I would go for those two bumper stickers.
Hng, Virginia's very hilly. Which means biking can be death if car tailgating you doesn't feel like slowing down when you start going up the hills of death in my university. (Clarke Library hill. *shudder* You have to start building speed for that even before going over the bridge, except the stupid cars always clog up the intersection there, so there's not much we can do)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 01:18 am (UTC)I have one of the two--the Pillaging one. i'm sending off for "republicans for Voldemort". It's going to go right under the "your honor student is merely a pawn in my australian cattle-dog's world domination plot" one, and next to the latin one which translates to "if you can read this, you're well educated" or somethign of that sort. As the lego bionicle figurines in the background wobble merrily...
...My car is a desperate cry for some nerd to marry me, all on its own.
I visited Pennsylvannia recently, so I recall the hills. They'd be murder on a bike, even for someone like me with meat-thighs and a bike that doesn't care whetheror not tomorrow comes because it has a bunch of steel pipes, making it probably tougher than most modern cars.
And it's PINK.
...I don't even want to think of biking on snow. It frightens me.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 01:40 am (UTC)Haha, it's better than posting in the classifieds! Nerd seeking nerd with matching batmobile. Drag racing/crime fighting on the weekends, a plus.
We have this complex calculation on which hills to go really fast on and when to pick up speed to get where we need to go. Sometimes it ends up with us having to get off the bike and do the walk of shame up the hill...
I don't bike on snow. It's scary. Even biking in winter is scary- my suite mates breaks froze, so she couldn't stop on a slope and had to use her front brakes even though she knew she would go over the bars.
She's an idiot. She doesn't wear a helmet and the only reason her skin doesn't look like shredded cabbage right now is because she was wearing a leather jacket and gloves, which were obliterated after the crash.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 01:57 am (UTC)Sort of, sort of "late night-vigalante work a bonus--promises not to ask about bullet-holes,a nd keep the transportation well-oiled, and the dinner warm. Also, is blond with a dynamite figure which will be well shown off when kidnapped by monologuing villains. Must rank somewhere within the "Good" range on alignment tests."
Ugh obliterated leather...the only thing I worry abotu is those grease-marks you get ont he inside of your right leg if you wear long-pants and bike, or the streak of dirty water you get lining up your back and ass if you go through puddles... Otherwise it's a wonderful source of transportation provided you don't live in a place that reaches ninety-degree weather and insane brightness of sunlight...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 02:07 am (UTC)Mm, because of the aforementioned hills, biking is not the safest method of transport around here. I'm trying to go to the gym on the bike machine to get all trained up for spring. (I know, pathetic isn't it? But I'm afraid to go biking in the cold if my brakes freeze up)
Oh, yes. The trials and tribulations of long pants. ^_^